A Portland woman who finds old cameras and develops forgotten film has discovered unseen photos of the Mount St. Helens eruption.

“I run into the big Goodwill in [Southeast Portland] and check all their film cameras for exposed, but undeveloped rolls of film,” said Kati Dimoff, who is a photographer herself. “[In May], I bought an Argus C2, which would have been produced around 1938, and it had a damaged roll of Kodachrome slide film in it.”

Dimoff dropped it off at a Portland shop that develops vintage film. When she picked it up, a message was left on her package of photographs.

“Is this from the Mount St. Helen eruption?” it read.

Thirty-seven years ago, 57 people lost their lives amid raining ash throughout Washington state in the wake of the Mount St. Helens explosion.

But Dimoff’s images show a new perspective of the plume cloud that haunted the northwest.

The Argus C2, which would have been produced around 1938, and it had a damaged roll of Kodachrome slide film in it. Image: Courtesy Kati Dimoff

“Some of the shots showed Mt. St. Helens way off in the distance with just the little puffs of ash from the beginning of the eruption, with the Longview Bridge [at the Oregon-Washington border] in view, so it must have been shot from just off Highway 30,” Dimoff told KIRO 7 News.

“Two of the shots showed a larger ash cloud, with John Gumm Elemetary School in the foreground in St. Helens, Oregon … Another shot included a family in a backyard, who I’m hoping know the story of the camera.”